The present invention relates to marine instruments and in particular to phased array transducers for generating a beam of acoustic energy for use in sonar devices for echo ranging or as doppler speed sensors.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,788 issued Feb. 24, 1987 to S. G. Boucher discloses a modularized marine instrument which combines three marine sensors in one assembly; a paddlewheel speedometer for sensing the speed of a marine vessel, a temperature sensor for sensing water temperature and a sonic transducer for sensing depth or presence of objects such as fish.
The present invention relates to phased array transducer for use as an improvement in the sonic transducer portion of the '788 patent but is not limited thereto and may find general applicability in other devices or applications.